


aiming for your heart now

by energyneverdies



Series: english assignments [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, Inspired by the Little Mermaid, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pirates, Rejection, Romantic Comedy, Unrequited Love, i swear it's funny tags are misleading
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-19
Updated: 2017-10-19
Packaged: 2019-01-19 10:19:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12408516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/energyneverdies/pseuds/energyneverdies
Summary: Camille is a pirate from france who sleeps around with men and women alike, leaving the next morning without a trace. at an island where his ship breaks down, he meets some mermaids.One night he's talking with one interested in him, but her brother, Ansel, rises from the sea and Camille is desperate for his attention. Is he guilty about feeling more for her brother than for her?Absolutely not.(where the "prince" is actually a crappy person and the love interest is stubborn and hates his personality)





	aiming for your heart now

**Author's Note:**

> yes!! this is inspired by the little mermaid. except it's where the eric falls for the ariel's brother instead. and ariel is jealous.
> 
> also, i really want to continue this but this first chapter was just an assignment for my english class.

Maybe when Camille docks his ship into the sand of an unexplored, deserted beach, he doesn’t expect the  _crack_ of wood at the hull of his ship. Scratch that, he  _doesn't,_ so he is confused. The last time the wood cracked was a week ago, give him a break! He doesn’t even know what they’re here for.

What in God’s name are they doing there?

So, it’s not his fault, actually. While Captain Arthur and the sailing-master had been down in the surgeon’s quarters for whatever reason, he was told to pilot the boat without actually knowing what he was doing. Then they hit land, but still. Not his fault.

It’s pretty humid in the air to Camille, having just received a storm last night that they’d narrowly escaped.

 

(Yeah, a few of the crew members hurled their rations overboard, but what matters is that they’re alive, right? Well, half.)

 

Contrasting with said storm, the sky is now a pale blue and the clouds are all invisible from sight. Camille’s extremely thankful, because the ominous gloom of them the past few days has bothered him to no end. Everyone else is either in the surgeon’s quarters, or the sleeping room.  He can’t really call out the carpenter to assist because the carpenter is the surgeon, and multiple people are needed.

So like any human with an IQ higher than 80, he pulls the bridge down while everyone else is occupied to explore by its rope.

Like any beach, there’s sand but to prevent it from entering his shoes, Camille removes them from his feet and throws them off somewhere. It doesn’t matter, as long as nothing steals them. There are so many trees in the forest and it’s likely some weird, foreign animal could take them.

Waves are smacking upon the sand like his mother’s hand when he did something bad as a child, hard and loud.

Is there anything wrong with sleeping in sand? No, and if he gets sand in his pants then he’ll just blame Captain Arthur for letting him leave the ship.

He falls asleep with his feet in the cold, salty water and and his hands on his chest.

  


When Camille wakes up, the sky has shadowed over with blues and blacks and there’s still nobody out with him. The crew is really lazy, but they’re also nosy as all hell so it comes to him as a surprise when nobody is yelling at him, asking what he’s doing.

However, there are some women and one man that are all staring at him with hostile eyes and frowning lips and for a second he’s confused. Confused, because since when are women a part of the crew? And since when do women wear undergarments around in public?

Figuring he’s simply stuck in a dream, he leans back and sand flies into the air around him and into his mouth and would get into his eyes if they’d been open. Thankfully, they aren’t, but he pinches himself with his eyelids pulled shut and  _yeah,_ it does hurt.

Which makes him sit up with a suspicious look as he scans the women and one man in front of him. They’re lying in the water on their bellies and Camille is just a little uncomfortable with the amount of cleavage visible.

( _Very_.)

“Who are you and why are you watching me?”

The man looks bored, almost like an uncle or elder brother who was just dragged because the girls were interested in Camille. He prides himself on being attractive for a sailor, but the way they’re looking at him is like he’s an  _experiment._

Like physicians slicing open a body of something new.

“We’re bored. You’re interesting to us,” the one with short-cropped dark hair comments, and Camille notes that she’s modestly covered and he can’t see much of her body. Her and the man seem most matured with their frowning faces and lame eyes.

“What am I, an animal?”

“No. You don’t have to be an animal to be interesting.”

“Well what are you?”

They look like normal humans to Camille, and he’s always been taught that mythical creatures have been... well, just that. Myths. So he’s got no idea as to what they can be aside from people. “Can’t you tell?” the man asks, his voice so low and tiring that he feels tired just after that sentence, more than he would when listening to an infant’s lullaby.

“Not really, if I’m honest,” Camille responds, leaning his head back and sighing. It seems they’re just going to give him a difficult time.

“Well actually stand up and you’ll see.”

“Why don’t you just tell me?”

“Because of surprise!” the girl with ginger hair shouts, thoroughly startling Camille and making him jump back and kick sand into the air with his butt while screaming bloody murder. She’d been quiet the entire time, and now they’ve all started laughing and he realizes that they were trying to fool him.

Instead of looking like every fish left the sea, they smile at him like he’s just told them that the planet was flat. “Look,” she says, and then lifts what should be her legs into the air and…

There’s a fin.

A  _fin._

Not as in finished fin, but a fish fin. Like, salmon. Trout. Blue tang. That type of fin.

“No way. What in  _hell."_

Mermaids have always been known as myths, so yes. Camille is surprised and terrified almost, because what if they’re actually sirens? Sirens are pretty much mermaids, except about 20 times more deviant and murderous.

“It’s true. It’s not plastic, you can feel.”

So Camille chooses to crawl over and pet the man instead of one of the girls, fascinated by the slick feel of the wet scales against his hand. “Wow.”

 

So Camille gets to know the mermaids. The man from the first time he met them had been their cousin, and the two girls were sisters. Occasionally, the one with red hair comes up to land to talk with him alone.

 

One night, the man is sitting at the edge of the water with his feet bare and dipped inside. The crew have a camp built close to the beach but in the forest, so Camille chooses to sleep alone most nights. Unlike the first night, he’s got a tent and sheets which is extremely beneficial.

Veronica is the name she goes by, and she always asks him about the human world. Almost like she wants to have legs.

Tonight she asks about dancing, how it works and everything. Mechanics and relationships between dancers.

“I can’t dance. You shouldn’t be asking me about dancing,” Camille jokes when she asks if he can show her. Along with that, he feels extreme embarrassment when he’s asked to show anything he can do.

“Why not?”

“I’m bad at it.”

Skimming the water is a body that’s unfamiliar, causing it to ripple and a small wave heads his way. Distracted, he asks, “who’s that?” The mermaid’s face isn’t really visible as their head is turned away, but Veronica is stuck looking like an owl in the sunlight. They aren’t wearing anything over their chest, which leads him to look away and put his hands over his eyes.

“My little brother.”

“So I can open my eyes?”

“Go ahead.”

So he does, and she still looks like a bug. “What’s with you?” It’s almost like she’s scared of him, and Camille can’t really understand because he’s on good terms with his sister. Maybe he’s done something wrong or maybe he’s just better than her. The idea’s not surprising, as the past few days she’s come off as extremely annoying and flirtatious. She just ignores him as she glares.

“Anyway, he doesn’t look that little.”

“Well, merpeople exercise too. He’s only twenty-one.”

Well. Camille is only twenty-seven, and he’s not sure how the ocean works but back home in France it’s not  _illegal._ He’s approaching and Camille isn’t sure what to do but he’s distracted from Veronica because _wow_. His face is attractive. Huh.

“What’s his name?”

She looks very offended at how Camille’s talking more about him than her, but he honestly can’t care. The man has a soft looking, angelic face and he’s just so… handsome.

That’s what Camille always thinks of the people before he sleeps with them for a night. 

Then he leaves.

(It's not possible to sleep with a mermaid.)

“Ansel.”

Now Ansel is laying on his front next to Veronica, apparently his older sister, while he smiles this really nice smile. Nice. As in, he can’t really find words to describe it, nice. His teeth are straight and white, and his hair is a shade of black that really shows off how blue his eyes are.

Camille is probably staring, but he doesn’t even care. As jealous as Veronica seems to be, she can’t prevent him from feeling things whether it be physical or emotional. It’s been awhile since he’s actually  _felt_ for someone, commitment being something he isn’t very good with.

“I’m Camille,” he says with a cocky grin, thus making Ansel’s own disappear and he hesitantly glares at the pirate who’s holding his hand out before reaching out to shake it.

“Ansel. You seem arrogant.”

“Ansel!”

“Veronica. Anyway, I’m only saying the truth.”

Well… he isn’t wrong. Sometimes, in the bathing area of the boat it takes him a while to admire himself in the mirror. Only because he’s very good looking. As a child, his mother said to admire the art from afar, but not to touch it. That’s what other people are for. In this case, he is the art.

But he’s not a narcissist.

He’s just aware of how men and women check him out in the streets.

“Alright. You’re very forward and I like that. Very honest,” Camille says, taking a moment to feel Ansel’s hand in his own, enjoying how soft it is in his. It’s nice. If you asked him if he believed in love at first sight, or love at all, just five nights ago, he’d laugh and punch you in the face and laugh as you held your broken nose.

Then Ansel squeezes Camille’s hand with the force of a ton of bricks which causes him to scream.

“I’ll leave you to it,” Veronica says for a second before splashing beneath the waves and Ansel looks murderous.

“I know you like how I look. I know you have my sister wrapped around your gross fingers, _who knows where those've been_ , but it isn’t going to work on me. I’ll kill you if you attempt anything.”

“Well it’s worth it if it’s for you.”

“I am a merman. I can drag you down here and I wouldn’t feel bad.”

“I’m into that.”

“The only thing preventing me from drowning you right here is how Veronica likes you.”

Well. Not to say that Camille’s hurt, but he does feel ashamed for once. Being a pirate, you’re supposed to be shameless about everything but he feels sad when the last thing he sees is the broad back of Ansel diving underwater.

What a beautiful night.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> ps: it isn't set in a specific time period bc i wanted it to seem both modern and historical
> 
> hmu on insta: 630.03 or sumaiy_ah


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